[EM] Question on RCV/IRV multi-seat method used in Minneapolis

[Kathy Dopp]

First,

I want to thank everyone who replied to my question. I'm buried in my
usual unpaid work, or I'd be more conversant - trying to get three
projects done in a very short time and no time for them all.

I do appreciate all the answers and info.

> Date: Tue, 23 Sep 2008 16:01:46 -0400
> From: Abd ul-Rahman Lomax <abd at lomaxdesign.com>

> Actually, this is not the unfair part, and STV is actually quite
> fair, until it starts eliminating candidates. And that isn't the
> fractional vote part. When a candidate is eliminated, the votes
> transfered aren't divided (unless they were previously divided.)

Yes. True when candidates are "eliminated", but not true in the method
used in Minneapolis and other locations when surplus votes above the
"threshold" are transferred to other candidates. I may've misspoke,
but that is what I was referring to.


> The *real* problem with IRV isn't monotonicity failure, but center
> squeeze,

You call it "center squeeze". I call it another case of a "spoiler"
candidate whereby a spoiler is defined as any nonwinning candidate
whose presence in the election contest changes who the ultimate winner
of the contest is.

>>Has anyone described the mathematical formulas for transferring excess
>>votes above the threshold amounts ?

I think I've figured it out. Few persons on this list seems to mind if
an election method is incredibly complex and inconvenient to manually
count or virtually impossible to manually audit in a way that the
public can verify without doing a 100% hand count (and thus is
difficult to ensure accurate and timely counts), but this method's
description has been overly simplified and incompletely described
where I've seen it posted.

Admittedly, the publicly verifiable accuracy and integrity of the
counts are my primary concern in evaluating any method, followed by
fairness and ease of election administration and perhaps the other ten
tenants of elections that I wrote about in a recent LWV, SLC article.

Thanks for the assistance and answers to my questions.  The topic of
election methods is very intricate and complex and takes much time and
talent to master.

Cheers,

Kathy Dopp